Newsline is an e-mail and fax information
service from the Church of the Brethren General Board in Elgin, Illinois.
FROM THE JUNE 14 NEWSLINE, Item 3:
--------------------------------------------------
After a week of twists and turns, the ordination service
for
Matthew Smucker was allowed to proceed as scheduled this
past
Sunday, June 9, in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Smucker, who is openly gay, was initially approved for
ordination
by the Michigan District board in late April. After more
than a
month of controversy, the district board reconvened on
June 1 to
listen to concerns and announced a decision to suspend
Smucker's
ordination process until guidance could be gained from
Annual
Conference and district conference.
The June 1 vote was just 6-5, however, with one abstention,
and
research into procedure showed that a two-thirds majority
was
required since the item was not on the original agenda.
Late last
week, the board conferred again by conference call on
this point
and other parliamentary procedures the motion may have
violated.
The board agreed to dismiss the motion "as if (it) did
not occur,"
according to a summary by district executive Marie Willoughby.
Smucker's ordination service was held at his home church,
Skyridge
Church of the Brethren, during the Sunday morning worship.
About
150 people attended the event.
"It was a wonderful day, very joyous and celebratory,"
Smucker
said. "It's one we were waiting on for a long time."
He said it
moves him and the church into "the next portion of the
journey."
Skyridge has placed a timeline and background of Smucker's
journey
through the ordination process on its website, at
www.skyridge.org/ordination.htm. It notes that the congregation
"fully affirms the ordination of Matthew J. Smucker to
Christian
ministry" after prayer and discernment.
Controversy and dissension continue, however, and lying
ahead is a
query coming before Annual Conference on the ordination
and
licensing of homosexual persons. Delegates are slated
to consider
that question when they gather in Louisville late this
month.
Michigan District also plans to discuss the issue at
its district
conference in August.